Ndemo yet to officially decline UoN VC role, says Council Chair Anangwe

University of Nairobi Council chairperson Amukowa Anangwe has said that Bitange Ndemo is still the university’s duly appointed Vice Chancellor, as he has not formally written to reject the position.

In a statement signed by council members Carren Omwenga and Ahmed Abdullahi, Anangwe questioned why Ndemo chose to decline the appointment publicly without officially notifying the council.

"It is puzzling why Prof Elijah Bitange Ndemo decided to reject the appointment of Vice Chancellor as per the LinkedIn post after faring well in the interview at the Public Service Commission," Anangwe said.

In the LinkedIn post last week, Ndemo cited a lack of proof that Anangwe had sought the Cabinet Secretary for Education's approval as the reason for his withdrawal.

"Additionally, the chairman had already issued a letter to Prof Mulaa to act as VC until my release from my current post. The announcement triggered a flood of congratulatory messages on social media. However, I dissociate myself from this unprocedural process and have withdrawn my candidacy for the position," Ndemo wrote.

Anangwe responded by saying the council followed due process in appointing both Ndemo as vice chancellor and Francis Jackim Mulaa as deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs.

He said he had written to the Cabinet Secretary on May 7 as part of the required consultation, and that the CS had yet to respond.

"The letter is a demonstration that I undertook a consultative process with the CS as required, but the buck stopped with the CS," he said. He dismissed the claim that he failed to consult the CS as false and misleading.

"Prof Ndemo wrote to me a letter requesting for the concurrence of the Cabinet Secretary, and I informed him of the ongoing consultative process,s and he was fully aware of what was going on. What made him to change his mind suddenly in the wee hours of the night, it is up to him to tell Kenyans," Anangwe said.

He maintained that unless Ndemo writes formally to reject the role, he remains the university’s appointed VC.

"But as the chairperson of the Council, Prof Ndemo is the duly appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, unless he writes to me formally about his rejection, which he has yet to do," Anangwe added.

To avoid an administrative gap, Anangwe said the council had appointed Prof Mulaa as acting vice chancellor for six months.

He defended the council’s decision not to seek concurrence from the Cabinet Secretary, saying the law only requires consultation, not approval.

"The courts have pronounced themselves what the notion of 'consultation' means; it is not synonymous with concurrence," he said.

He cited a 2022 judgment which stated that consultation does not grant veto power to the consultee, and the consultor may disregard the consultee’s input if there is a good reason to do so.

Anangwe pointed to the 2020 appointment of Stephen Gitahi Kiama as VC, where the council ignored objections from then Education CS George Magoha.

"The Council went ahead and appointed Kiama, disregarding Prof Magoha’s contrary view, and it was lawful for the Council to do so," he said.